Tag: gibellina
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Day 11 of 16 Days of Sicily | Reaction to the Rubble
During the night of January 14 and 15, 1968 through early February 1968 western Sicily’s Belice Valley experienced a series of earthquakes. It was before the Richter Scale was employed to measure tremors in Italy, so it’s hard to say in those terms how strong they were but know this: it was many seismic events…
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Modern Art In Sicily: Il Cretto di Burri
8,000 square meters or 86,111 square feet of concrete mark the place where the town of Gibellina was before the devastating 1968 earthquake that was centered in southwestern Sicily. Artist Alberto Burri spent 30 years to create this sculpture called Grande Cretto or il Cretto, that outlines the streets of the old town where homes,…
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Stopped In My Tracks at Cretto di Burri
Seeing this sculpture in person earlier this month was very moving. At the site of Gibellina Vecchia, a town in southwestern Sicily that was flattened by the January/February 1968 earthquakes, a stunning exhibition of 8,000 square meters of concrete has transformed the ruins of what were once homes, businesses, and public spaces. Grande Cretto or…
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A Frontier of Art
In spite of the plague of bureaucracy that was perhaps more devastating than the 1968 earthquake itself, fifty years later, the Valle del Belice has emerged as a frontier of contemporary art and architecture in Sicily. The Star of Gibellina, created by artist Pietro Consagra, represents an entryway to the area, and is meant to…
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Starlight, Star bright
The Star of Gibellina represents an entryway to the area of southwestern Sicily, the Valle del Belice, devastated by the 1968 earthquake. By contemporary artist Pietro Consagra, the brushed metal structure extends over the state road and is a sign of rebirth. We drove under this today, and then back again! The sculpture also marks…